The field of this invention relates to the installation of insulation materials in buildings and similar structures, and more specifically, to an assembly and method utilizing a clip and pin combination for attaching insulation to a frame member.
The installation of insulation material in buildings may require that the insulation be attached to a frame member of the structure. Generally, pins have been welded or glued to the frame member and then the insulation material is attached using the pins. This has presented several problems. First, the welding and gluing processes are time consuming, which makes the attachment of the insulation material tedious and inefficient. This often leads to installation and construction delays, inefficient utilization of labor, and increased installation and construction costs. Second, the bonds created by the welding and gluing processes may weaken over time, causing the pin and thus the insulation to become detached from the frame member. Third, the pins are often attached to the frame member at unaligned positions of the member, resulting in uneven or crooked alignment of the insulation material.
Although U.S. Pat. No. 2,584,194 to Drury appears to disclose a securing device for affixing insulation material to a strip steel framing member, this device is believed to have several drawbacks. First, the insulation material must be specially manufactured to include a tab that can be clamped to the frame member. Second, the clamping pressure applied to this tab may cause the insulation material to tear, resulting in the detachment of the insulation material from the frame member. Third, even if the insulation material does not tear, the tab may be pulled out of the clip, causing the insulation material to become detached from the frame member.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an assembly for attaching insulation material to a frame member that overcomes the above disadvantages.
Generally speaking, the present invention fulfills the foregoing needs by providing in one aspect thereof an assembly for attaching insulation material. The assembly in combination includes a frame member having a generally vertically-extending flange. A clip has a pair of resilient grabbing members that define an aperture for receiving the flange. A plate member extends generally perpendicular relative to the grabbing members. The plate member includes an opening. A pin having a sharp end extends through the opening in the plate member. A set of washers is connected to the pin to retain insulation material pierced by the pin and to retain the pin in the opening in the plate member.
The present invention further fulfills the foregoing needs by providing, in another aspect thereof, a method for attaching insulation material. The method allows for providing a frame member with a generally vertically-extending flange. The method further allows for grabbing the flange with a clip having a pair of resilient grabbing members defining an aperture for receiving the flange. A plate member extends generally perpendicular relative to the grabbing members and includes at least one opening. An inserting action allows for inserting a respective pin through the opening. The pin has a substantially sharp end facing away from the plate member. A piercing action allows for piercing insulation material through the sharp end of the pin. A retaining action allows to respectively retain the pin and the pierced insulation material with a set of washers.